Sunday 23rd December

For the past 25 years the Christmas Nativity scene in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, has shown the infant Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem.

This year, the Vatican has decided on a change. The birth place has been changed to Nazareth, and Jesus is placed in Joseph’s carpentry shop, with Joseph’s carpentry tools surrounding him.

Gone are the sheep and hay and the shop is flanked by a ‘covered patio’, while on the other side there is ‘the inside of a pub, with its hearth.’

This change has come about as a result of the translation of the verses of Matthew’s Gospel, our lead Gospel this year, which has been used for this purpose and which reads as follows – Chapter 1 v 24 & 25 -

‘When Joseph woke up, he did as the Angel of God ordered and took Mary into his house. Without them knowing each other, a child was born and he called his name Jesus’ – those words were taken from an alternative version of the bible to that which I have just read. ‘It was time for a change’ said a spokesman, and a return to St. Matthew’s Gospel.

Apparently it is Matthew’s Gospel on which the Roman Catholic Angelus’ prayer is based, and the placing of Jesus in a carpenter’s workshop matches the Franciscan tradition. Sources close to the Vatican said that there was a desire to crack down on the various ‘fanciful Nativity scenes’ that have sprung up in recent years. Some of these have included modern day persons, including Elvis Presley. And our own Archbishop is reported to have said in this past week that – ‘the story of the three Wise Men is nothing but a “legend”.

Change is always challenging, at whatever age it occurs, but it can lead to insecurity, and doubt. Traditionalists may well feel threatened and undermined. And what of those cherished carols which will be sung tonight at our service of Nine Lessons and Carols, as the birth story of Jesus is retold in words and music? How will they reflect this change?

‘Away in the carpenter’s shop, Mary gave birth. Next door to the patio and the pub with its hearth.’

In another change some Roman Catholic clergy have been advised to hold their midnight Christmas mass at 8.00pm or earlier because of troublesome intruders. On a more positive note however, a further report revealed that our Cathedrals are offering more services this Christmas to cope with the congregations that are expected this year, following last years record attendance levels. Since the year 2000, there has been a 37% increase in attendance at Christmas services, with some Cathedrals unable to accommodate the numbers wanting to celebrate Christmas in church.

Leaders of the church believe that an increasing number of Britons are seeking to recapture the sense of mystery and spirituality of the festival that has been stifled by growing commercialisation in society.

So, change also appears to be taking place in the hearts and minds of people, despite the ever earlier preparations for Christmas and reports this year of some four million people still in debt from last year.

As we draw to the end of this Advent season, so we remind ourselves that we have reflected in these past weeks on the Patriarchs and the Prophets.

To make a promise to another is to be in their debt. God set a time when he made promises to human kind, and a time for those promises to be fulfilled. ‘From John the Baptist until the end is the time of their fulfilment’ says St. Augustine. And God has by his promises to us, put himself, in our debt. Those promises were put in writing as we read in Holy Scripture and he also placed his bow in the sky as a sign of this – ‘Genesis 9.12’ – when he said to Noah – ‘When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant – promise, between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on earth.’ And so the time of the prophets was the time for the foretelling of God’s promises. But because those promises of God seemed impossible to Human beings – equality with angels in exchange for mortality, corruption, poverty, weakness, dust and ashes – God not only made a written contract with us to win our belief, but also established a mediator of good faith, his only son – Jesus Christ. Jesus was sent to show us the way, so that we could obtain the goal promised by God to his people. And Jesus was to be not only the guide, but also the ‘way’ itself, so that we might travel with him as leader and by him as the way.

John the Baptist, the new Elijah, was sent by God to prepare the way – to make the paths straight.

Today we honour another who was called to prepare the way – Mary, the Blessed Virgin who was highly favoured by God. It was her willingness and that of Joseph that lead to Mary giving birth to the Saviour of the World, the Messiah, the long expected one. Mary’s song recorded in Luke’s Gospel, the Magnificat, recalls that moment when on visiting her cousin Elizabeth, who was already pregnant with John the Baptist, to tell her the good news, spoke those words – ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour. For he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden, for behold from henceforth all generations will call me blessed.’ It is not part of our culture to honour the Blessed Virgin Mary in the way that our sister church does, but without the obedience of Mary and the acceptance by Joseph of Jesus as his charge, where might we be today? Who in the world of the past or of the world in the future could accept such responsibility for human kinds, future? Mary fulfilled her calling, and beyond it. It is the Blessed Virgin herself, who today challenges each one of us to a life of submission and obedience. As Mary, an ordinary young Jewish girl, was prepared by God to become the mother of Jesus, with all the responsibilities of bringing new life into the world, so we also are being prepared in this Advent season, not only to celebrate once again the birth of the ‘Saviour of the World’, but we are also being prepared for that time when we ourselves will have completed our way through this life, and so rightly claim for ourselves, God’s promises to each one of us.

I close with a reflection by Father Andrew SDC, and as I share these words with you - let us ponder on the way in which God uses just the ordinary things that we have in our hands with which to accomplish wonderful things.

‘Mary, what is that in your hand?’ A baby and that baby is the ‘Saviour of the World’. It was God’s way to save us through human nature, and to teach us by uniting Himself with that human nature which he made.

What is it that Mary has in her hand? - a human baby, a real baby. God used our humanity to save humanity……

What is it that we have in our hands, as we kneel at the altar? - the Blessed Sacrament, the precious Body and Blood of Christ. How tender should be the hands that hold the Body of the Lord, how truthful, how kind, the lips that receive Him, how humble and holy the hearts that shall house Him!

What is it that you have in your hand?

The gift of God Himself. (Father Andrew SDC)

© Peter Vickers December 2007